UPDATED: Rock "n" Roll CLEOPATRA musical from Stephen Soderbergh starring Catherine Zeta Jones & Hugh Jackman!!

UPDATED: The Hollywood Reporter's story differs and tells us the movie will be titled CLEO and set in the same 1920's gangster period as Zeta-Jones' CHICAGO. The always working and experimental Stephen Soderbergh (OCEAN's trilogy, two CHE biopics) is to direct a 3-D live-action rock €™n€™ roll musical about CLEOPATRA... the historical figure which infamously nearly made major studio 20th Century Fox bankrupt in 1963. Unlike that $44 million production four decades ago (which equals just under $300 million today... the most expensive picture ever made until PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN: AT WORLD'S END according to Forbes) starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor which amazingly despite all it's problems made a profit, Soderbergh's version will be made for just $30 million and will be shopped around studio's for financing and distribution in the coming weeks say Variety. Catherine Zeta Jones, Academy Award winner for the musical CHICAGO (as the Egyptian Queen) and Hugh Jackman (her lover Marc Antony) will star. The musical has been written by Indie rock band Guided by Voices (who you can here via this link)... with the script coming from James Greer (JUST MY LUCK) who is also the former bass player for the group. As we've said the mercurial Soderbergh has recently made TWO films about CHE GUEVARA in the Spanish language, both starring Benicio del Toro. He then quickly moved onto a C.I.A. thriller THE INFORMANT with Matt Damon and co-starring a whole range of character actors which is in post-production and opens in March. He will then move on to THE GIRLFRIEND EXPERIENCE, a movie about a call girl that will be lead by Porn star Sasha Grey and will be released in theatres, on DVD and on HDNet Movie Channel simultaneously. He also has a LIBERACE biopic which should see Michael Douglas return to the big screen, on his potential schedule. What an amazing set of films and how exicting is it to see him constantly working an challenging himself? Is he truly the most exciting director, purely based on his wide ranging filmography and speed of work... in the industry today?

Editor-in-chief
Editor-in-chief

Matt Holmes is the co-founder of What Culture, formerly known as Obsessed With Film. He has been blogging about pop culture and entertainment since 2006 and has written over 10,000 articles.